swim through the fires to stay in this world

mollivanders asked me about my favorite shows growing up and if I could go back and rewatch them.

The two shows I'd mention here are Xena and Star Trek (of various series, I watched Star Trek from Next Gen through to Voyager). Star Trek... honestly, I don't know how that would hold up on rewatch, partially because it's a fucking HUGE amount of television. I'd imagine some episodes would be good, some would be bad, the special effects would be dated but mostly believably enough. But there sheer volume of episodes (and the fact that I rewatched the beginning of DS9 recently and had not desire to continue) means I'll likely never rewatch it.

Xena is a show that I actually really want to rewatch. I've seen the first couple of episodes, which were campy as hell, but definitely showed potential towards the kind of storytelling I remember Xena pulling off. (And I love LOTS, which shares a lot of spiritual and literal DNA with Xena (in literally every way but specifically) with regards to campy storytelling but with some great emotional beats.

As a side note, my mother and I quite watching Xena in its later seasons, and I was checking out an episode guide to see how much tv I'd be committing to with a rewatch and where I'd likely stop watching - definitely when Gabrielle as short hair, but also likely when the baby malarky starts up. In fact, Xena may be where I developed my intense allergy to fictional babies.

Lastly, the Xena theme? Is pretty much imprinted on my soul. The first time I heard it after not hearing it in literally, a decade, I knew it word for word and exactly which images where going to show up.

Okay, before we get to the movie, why do people hate Benedict Cumberbatch? I know I am not a fan because I hate Sherlock but am pretty sure that's not why other people dislike him. That said,( Read more... )

Now I want to read ALL the Spock/Uhura.

Right now, I have too fantastic (and extensive) comment memes in open windows. So to keep track of the fics that I want to be able to easily re-read, I'm going to be compiling links for my favorites. Which means that my lucky flist gets quick access to some of the best. (FYI, if you visit this post in a week, there will be more fics than there are now.)

Animorphs:

There Is No Such Thing As Neutral (Rachel)
We Happy Few (Rachel)

Anne Of Green Gables:

Fairy Princess

Atonement:

My Hand Is Growing Weak (Briony)

Avatar:

As To Matters Of Dress (Sokka/Suki)

Batman:

Lick Your Eyes & Then Mine (Catwoman/Batman)

Beauty & The Beast:

Hold Me Down (Belle/Beast)
Learning Humanity (Belle/Beast)

Being Human:

You Said Your Soul Would Linger On (Annie)

Bones

One Year Later (Brennan)
Turn Around Again (Angela)
Bones Break (Brennan)
Trust Not The Coyote (Caroline)
Conceptual Art Is Bullshit (Angela)
A Reasonable Explanation (Brennan)
Spent So Long Waiting Here (Booth/Brennan)

Buffyverse:

American Girls (Buffy)
Plans (Faith)
Tired Of Being Cautious (Fred)
Travel It All (Faith)
Razor's Edge (Buffy)
But You've Got The Headstone All Ready (Buffy)
There Is No Prince (Buffy/Giles)

Casino Royale:

Juggernaut Heart (Vesper)

Castle:

Takedown (Beckett/Demming)

Carmen Sandiego:

The Catch Is You Stay & See What Becomes Of Us (Carmen/Waldo)

Castle:

Fatherhood (Alexis)
The Magnificent Seven (Martha)

Community:

Do Not Go Gentle (Annie)
It's My Heart, Not Me, Who Cannot Drive (Britta, Jaye)
Take The Wheel (Britta)
On Hiatus (Britta)
My Smile Can Distract You (Annie)
Like A Child (Annie)
With The Lights Out It's Less Dangerous (Annie/Jeff)
Come A Little Bit Closer (Jeff/Annie)
Hey, Hey, You, You (Annie/Jeff)
TV Marathon (Jeff, Abed, Jeff/Annie)
In Limbo Part One and Part Two (Britta)
Sawdust (Britta/Abed)
This Could Be A Brand New Start (Britta)
Temporary (Jeff/Annie)

Criminal Minds:

Close To Home (JJ)
They Are My Own (Haley)
My Heart Has Lost It's Wind Now (Emily)
When It Doesn't Rain It Pours (Emily)
Self-Esteem Is Good For You (Garcia)
I'll Sing You All The Lullabies (They Never Sung For Me) (Elle)
Wrong Number (Garcia/Morgan)
Friday Night Goddess (Garcia, Reid)

Dark Angel:

The Tenderest Touch Leaves The Darkest Marks (Max)
Songs For Fighters (Max/Alec)

Dexter:

A Lion-Hearted Fucking Woman (Deb)
After The Deluge (Deb)

Doctor Who

I Think To Die Would Be An Awfully Big Adventure (Amy)
Climbing Back (Rose)
These Accidents of Faith and Nature (Amy)
Too Much Like A Fairy Tale (Amy)
The Good Wife (Martha)
We'll Be Their Storybook Heroes (Sally Sparrow)
Got A Sky Full of Stars (And Nothing Else) (Amelia Pond)
No Hero In Her Sky (Amelia)
First Run (River Song)
Lionesses (River Son/Liz X)

Dollhouse:

Painting The World You Want To See (Priya)

Dracula:

Phantom (Mina/Dracula)
Firefly:

Your Absence Has Gone Through Me (Inara/Nandi)
Meta (River)
Wolves (Zoe, Kaylee, River)

Fullmetal Alchemist:

Steadily (Riza)
There Goes My Gun (Riza & Rebecca)

Gilmore Girls:

A Perfect Haircut Every Day (Lane)

Glee:

Waegukin (Tina)
Inscrutable (Tina/Mike)
As If You'd Just Woke Up (Rachel/Jesse)
Fathers and Mothers (Rachel)
Linear Progression (Shelby)
Sweep The Room With A Glance (Emma)

The Good Wife

I Lost My Teeth On The Edge Of A Glass (Kalinda)
Something To Think About (Kalinda)

Gossip Girl:

Wants (Blair)
Snapshot of the Artist (Vanessa)
You Know You Love Me (Gossip Girl)
Everything Marissa Cooper Could Have Been (Serena, Summer)

Harry Potter:

On the Nature Of Hatred & It's Uses (Hermione)
Human Behavior (Bellatrix)
When Choice Means Leaving Everything Behind (Hermione)
No Take-Backs (Narcissa)
You Counting On My Failure Make Me Live (Lily/James)
It's Not A Joke (Tonks)
Blow Me Blue-Bell Bubbles (Alice)

Hercules:

Heart & Heaven (Meg)

How I Met Your Mother:

That Girl (Robin/Ted)

The Hunger Games:

REBELLION (KATNISS)

Trust (Rue)
Rise & Fall (Prim)

In Plain Sight

The Art Of Ninja Origami (Mary/Marshall)
Hard Hats (Mary & Eleanor)
Ice Cream (Mary/Marshall)

Iron Man:

The Sea Makes Your Eyes Strange (Natasha Romanova)
Dust Out The Demons (Tony/Pepper)
Fast, Thorough, & Sharp As A Tack (Pepper/Tony)
Brutality (Tony, Emma Frost, Pepper)

Labyrinth:

Missed You All Along (Sarah)
Dreams (Sarah)

Legally Blonde:

Sugar, We're Going Down (Elle)

Legend of the Seeker:

Immune To Pathos (Cara)
It Feels Like Being Broken (Cara/Kahlan)
Dress Code (Kahlan/Cara)
Contrast (Cara/Kahlan)
Life Comes With A Rush (Cara/Kahlan)
Been A Long Road To Get Here (Kahlan)
Where Goodness Used To Be (Cara)
A Friendly Assist (Cara/Kahlan)

Leverage:

I've Looked At Love (Sophie)
Kisses (Parker)
A Lie Will-Told Is Immortal (Sophie)
Translations For Broken & Breaking Out (Parker, Nate)

Life:

Pretty As A Diagram (Reese)

Merlin:

Under The Greenwood Tree (Morgana/Merlin)
Pennies In A Jar (Morgana)

Mulan:

My Story Is Not Like Yours (Mulan)

Mythology:

We Laugh Indoors (Lilith)
She Doesn't Wanna Be (Just A Little Light Turning The Key) (Lilith)

Narnia:

One of those Mink-Coated Ladies (Susan)
The Story Of An Umbrella (Susan)
Just Like The Edge Of The World (Lucy)

The OC:

Houses Out Of Cardboard Boxes (Julie)

Pirates Of The Caribean:

O The Blood And The Treasure And Losing It All (Elizabeth/Will)

Practical Magic:

Fine As A Bridesmaid (Gillian)

Push:

Drove Like Bandits On The Freeway (Nick/Cassie)
Seeing (Cassie/Nick)

Sunshine:

Story (Constance/Sunshine)

SG-1:
What I've Found (Vala)
Conflicting Mission Reports (Vala & Teyla)
5 Times Vala Threw Daniel A Birthday Party When It Wasn't His Birthday (Vala/Daniel)

Sherlock Holmes:

Play The Cards With Spades To Start (Irene)
"Damnation!" (Mary)

Star Trek:

Many Worlds (Naomi, Seven of Nine)
Lethal Poison Through The System (Uhura)
Maybe You Could've Been Something I'd Be Good At (Uhura/Gaila)

Speak:

I Cast My Face Towards The Pavement (Melinda)

Supernatural

And I Don't Owe You A Damn (Bela)
Money (Bela)
An Endangered Species (Ellen, Jo)
Ongoing Arguments (Anna, Castiel)
Fractured (Jo)
Better Find Your Ticket (Bela)
Hurricane (Bela)

Tortall:

Light Is Less (Alanna)
Risk-Taking (Alanna)

True Bood:

Lay Down Your Burden (Jessica)
Language (Jessica)
In The End I Possess My Birthplace (Tara)
Looking For Her Ordinary World (Jessica)
Remember Me When Noses Start To Bleed (Pam/Eric)
I Used To Be A Bad Girl Too (Faith/Jessica)
When Life Gives You Lemons (Tara/Franklin)

The Vampire Diaries:

Roaring Twenties (Anna)
Child Of Mine (Pearl, Anna)
Take The Safety Off (Bonnie)
Old Relations (Bonnie/Elena)
Evolution Is Corruption (Damon/Elena)

Veronica Mars:

Lies, Damned Lies, & Statistics (Veronica)
Leave The Light On (Veronica/Logan)

Wimbleton:

That's How You Know (Lizzie)

White Collar:

Put Another Dime In (Diana)

 What 5 characters perform their actual jobs well? (Characters from Clerks need not apply.)

My competency-kink combined with my lack of patience with people who AREN'T good at their job makes this a really easy question to answer. That said, there are five people who I think are scarily competent at their jobs (in no particular order):

Jack Bristow, Temperence Brennan, Michael Westen, Nyota Uhura, and the epic Adelle deWitt.

( Q&A on Pilots, Finales, Intos, Exits & The Blossoming Of A Relationship )

( The Negativity Fannish5 )

Then I realized my competency kink would make it hard. (That's what he said.)

Last week's fannish5 : Name 5 characters who should be fired from their jobs.

1.) Sweets

2.) Chuck, from Chuck. And by 'fired' I mean 'I can't believe the CIA hasn't put a bullet in his head already.'

3.) Snape. I mean, really, does anyone actually learn from him? (And I have much fondness for Snape, fyi)

4.) Sheriff Lamb. I don't think I need to explain, do I?

5.) The dudes of Star Trek. WHY DO YOU ALL KEEP LEAVING YOUR FREAKING POSTS?

 gacked from yahtzee63 :

( Television Meme )

Have You Hugged Your Human Today?

Read this. It's beyond adorable.

I'm really feeling the first week of working six hour shifts - largely because every single afternoon after I'm done with work I've had other things to do and then spending time with mom in the evening and (attempting to go to bed early).

Seriously, today, I worked for six hours, came home and gardened for two (cumulative) hours in the middle of which I had to go run an errand for ma mere.

So, I'm pretty damn bushed at the moment, and am going to be using this evening to cuddle up to my computer and post a bunch of stuff I've mean meaning to, as well as catching up on comments.

Over the past couple of days I've ran into some awesome Star Trek meta (favorite so far is The New OT4 by liviapenn in part because it is an epic smackdown to the 'Uhura is only a love interest argument)  and there was one comment that just hit me:

"one of my tenets of fandom is that no matter how you try to align your politics/ideals and your fannish activity, at a certain baseline there truly is no accounting for taste. Which is probably a corollary of ye olde Fannish Fallacy of Judgment - it's not up to me to judge somebody's quality as a feminist in real life based on what bizarro fiction they get their jollies from. Some people juggle the craziest geese and that's as far as I can go, besides occasionally trying to get people to at least examine their contradictions. That doesn't stop me from judging myself, however."

sainfoin_fields , in rawles' meta on misogyny in fandom relating to Star Trek (well worth reading).

See, this idea that I am bad for loving what I love, even if I love it despite massive flaws that I acknowledge, is something I really struggle with. Why can't I be one of those cool people, I think, who have all live action icons? What is wrong with me that Claymore has not hooked me but I've written eleventy-billion smutty one-shots for Naruto? Why do fics with EPICALLY problematic gender and character issues nonetheless sometimes make my favorites list?

And I can answer all of these with logical answers - that's not the point. The point is that I do think it's important to realize and accept that (speaking personally) what we love or what's worth our fannish time is not always decided by us, you know? That not only is there no accounting for other people's taste, but there is no accounting for our own.

With no segue whatsoever, I would also like to rec a Soul Eater fanfic:

One Damn Thing After Another by metisket  Part 1 and Part 2

"“You’ve got a fever,” she says, coming to settle next to me. She’s wearing her scary black blood dress. She looks great in it. Too bad it means I’m, you know, losing it. And that I can’t think of a way to con her into wearing something like it in real life.

Nah. Then I really would have to beat the boys back with a stick, like Havar said. Maybe I like it best that she doesn’t wear that dress much."

It took me a bit to settle into the first person voice, but when I did is was damn fine. Soul's perspective on his own sanity is delicious and is conviction that Maka is the bes thing since sliced bread is pitch-perfect. Also excellent is the brief glimpse of the Harver/Ox/Jackie love triangle, Soul's loving and sarcastic commentary on Black Star, and that thing that happens in part 2 that I don't want to spoil you for.